Individuals often find it difficult to contribute a proportion of their income to savings; savings and investment is often unconditioned (non habitual) behavior and is seen by many as difficult to achieve. Furthermore, in many instances, consumers find it difficult to fund significant purchases without having to resort to consumer debt or the like. A shift away from funding purchases on credit to at least partially pre-funding them is preferred and often required.
Practically, it is much easier for an individual to find $1 or $2 per day than it is to find $500 or $1,000 out of what may already be overstretched budgets. It is generally accepted that the existing ratio of savings and investment relative to consumption is suboptimal and unsustainable and a solution is required that addresses the need to facilitate provisions for consumer savings and investment without curtailing consumer expenditure, particularly given that consumer expenditure accounts for 60-70% of total expenditure in the economy.
Given the trend to increasing life expectancy, there is increasing pressure on pensions to provide for individuals through their retirement years. It is therefore beneficial for individuals to save through all available means and to maximize the tax benefits that are available to them.
While existing processes and methods disclose the concept of “rounding up” a single transaction, none of the prior art concerns executing two independent financial transactions in which one or more second financial transactions are triggered by approval of a first financial transaction. For example, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0294166 discloses a process for rounding or incrementing up to a preset multiple, a financial transaction using current and existing bank accounts. In particular, a transaction may be rounded-up to a multiple set by the enrollee, the service provider or the issuing bank. The difference between the rounded-up amount and the actual transaction amount will be earmarked for transfer.